nqz: "Consistency is the word for us, we have high peaks and terrible matches"

The Brazilian sniper knows there is a lot of work to be done if paiN are to fix their mistakes before the Major.

paiN bowed out of IEM Chengdu in disappointment with a loss to The MongolZ in the lower bracket of Group A, letting a 7-0 lead on the Inferno decider slip to the team playing its first event with Unudelger "⁠controlez⁠" Baasanjargal.

The Brazilians have struggled to find consistency in the Fall season, with this result coming on the heels of a 3-0 group stage record at PGL Masters Bucharest that was quickly spoiled by a1-2 defeat to Legacy in the quarter-finals.

"We were not on the same page inside the server, and outside the server also," Lucas "⁠nqz⁠" Soares said after the defeat. "As you said, we showed we are improving, but at the same time we still need to fix a lot of things because we are still committing so many mistakes."

Arriving a day before the tournament in China did paiN no favors, and nqz hopes that a few days of rest can help the team recover before they head to Hong Kong for BLAST Rivals before ending the season with the Major.

"We will try to be more healthy, be better on the mental side of things to join the server, because we are finding ourselves playing right now, but mixing the fact that we are tired with the fact that we're committing so many mistakes, it's hard to win matches," he said.

Listen to the interview here.

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nqz, commiserations on the loss. Not the way you would have wanted Chengdu to go. What's going through your mind right now?

Not much, really. We had the chance to close the series on Inferno, but it slipped away from us. So many mistakes, I played really bad on the last two maps and they managed to punish us.

Coming here, you were on a bit of an uptick after a rough couple of months, but it didn't continue here. Can you talk to me about that inconsistency, why you feel like you're struggling to find that?

We were not on the same page inside the server, and outside the server also. As you said, we showed we are improving, but at the same time we still need to fix a lot of things because we are still committing so many mistakes.

Of course it's not a good result, but compared to the way the season started, we are improving with baby steps. But not the ideal result, not a good result for us.

Do you know why you might be committing so many mistakes?

I don't know, maybe wanting to close the game too early. Maybe not communicating well or getting caught off-guard, especially against The MongolZ. I don't know.

snow went through some role changes pretty recently, he's been freed up a bit more to make some plays. How has that changed the game for you?

It's been really good because snow is a really active guy, and he always liked to do more aggressive roles. But since he joined paiN, he was more like an anchor and lurker, so we made this change because it made sense on paper for us, and it's paying off right now.

He's playing amazing, and right now it's a matter of time to adjust the rest of the players to his playstyle because he's doing amazing.

Do you think that adjustment might be part of why it's a little hard to find that consistency right now, that you're still trying to find that balance?

Yeah, for sure. Consistency is the word for us, we have high peaks and terrible matches. It's a thing we're trying to find a balance between, letting snow have more freedom, but at the same time, mesh with him inside the server.

After this you have [BLAST Rivals] in Hong Kong coming up. How are you going to reset coming out of this, since you have only a few days until that starts?

Being honest, I think we're going to use these days just to rest and get used to the timezone because this tournament specifically — not giving excuses — but we arrived one day before the match, so everyone is not sleeping well and it's hard to adjust in such a short gap of time.

So we will try to be more healthy, be better on the mental side of things to join the server, because we are finding ourselves playing right now, but mixing the fact that we are tired with the fact that we're committing so many mistakes, it's hard to win matches.